Power!

Although we were sad to be leaving old and new friends and moving on in our journey through the eastern USA, the time came the morning after the wedding and, having spent time over breakfast with some of the others and had an opportunity to thank the bride and bridegroom and their families, the car was packed and we headed south towards Ann Arbor again: I was beginning to feel I knew my way around this part of Michigan and even the area of Ohio along the southern bank of Lake Eerie.

I was still not quite used to all the shops being open on Sundays – but I guess I should be as that’s the case in the UK, too, now. But I was glad to be able to sort out a SIM card for the iPad so that we had satnav again: I would not have wanted to cover some of those distances without knowing where we were. We timed it so that we reached the pretty university town in time for lunch – and we found a lovely creperie, indulging in a sweet lunch before walking the few blocks to the phone store where very helpful staff had us sorted quickly with a SIM that saw us right through to Somjit’s last few hours at JFK.

We had no plans about where we would stop for the night and it was a glorious day – not bringing the promised showers but brilliant sunshine. So I kept driving.

We passed Cleveland and noticed the stadium we’d heard about. Although the road we took was supposed to be ‘lakeside’ it was a typical interstate with little view other than the acres of farmland to our right. The traffic was not heavy and driving conditions were good. So on we went.

There was nowhere to stop, so late afternoon saw us grabbing a coffee at the equivalent of a motorway service station. It was small and not fully operational that afternoon.People were complaining that there was no hot food available and there seemed to be a problem with some equipment. Fortunately, there was coffee!

As we began to think about stopping we called into a Holiday Inn Express as we’d been well served by them along the way and, although they had rooms, they told us that there was another a little further along the road. That suited us better as we were not quite ready to stop for the night.

The advice was good. We drove about another 20 miles and found a lovely sister hotel, out in the countryside but with easy access to the interstate. There was a really helpful receptionist who pointed us to a lovely restaurant at the sailing club for dinner and, although it was further than we expected, we enjoyed both the food and the atmosphere as we ate looking out over the lake and the lakeside marina.

Excitement was building the next morning as we headed towards Niagara Falls. This was a natural spectacle I had always wanted to see, but had never felt drawn enough to the US to travel there when the mysteries of the Far East were calling! I’m glad I waited.

The first sign of the Falls seemed to be almost as soon as we left Buffalo (Honestly, it was probably only about a mile or so outside Niagara Falls township – but it felt as though we’d just left Buffalo) . I saw a huge white cloud: had it been black I’d have said there were tyres on fire, as it was I said, “That doesn’t look good – that could be a huge fire. I hope it doesn’t stop us visiting the Falls.”  And then I realised – what I could see was the spray rising way above the skyscrapers that fill the Canadian side , so the water topples 178 ft over the top of the Falls, hits the bottom and bounces back up to an incredible height. That says it all! The power has to be seen to be believed.

We had stopped at an information centre so had time to check in to the hotel, have a quick snack ( great pizza delivered to the room by a local restaurant) and be down at reception in time to be on the minibus by 3p.m. A number of areas were included in the Grayline tour and it was an effective way to see as much as we could in a short time. Always, we found tours served as a great introduction to a place, highlighting the areas we would visit again and making clear to us places that could be ticked off the list with one brief visit.

So we got in line for the Maid of the Mist, prepared to be soaked and to have soaking cameras! We were not disappointed! But it was worth it for the spectacle. Although the weather was not perfect, the falls gave new meaning to the word  ‘awesome’ , so heavily overused by so many. Here we saw it. Sheer power, capable of supplying electricity to millions of homes, such that the residents do not have to pay for electricity (can that be?) because of the income generated. (If anyone reading this has better information please leave a comment with an update. Thanks)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had often wondered why there was so much fuss about going to the Canadian side: many people seemed to do both. The only real advantage I could see was being able to take photographs without psychedelic skyscrapers in the background AND being able to take photographs showing the horseshoe shape of the falls across the river. That is lost when you are close to them.